


Peter Nureyev and the Second Steel

by BadassIndustries



Series: Peter Nureyev and the Second Steel [1]
Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Alternate Universe - Benzaiten Steel Lives, Benzaiten Steel & Juno Steel - Freeform, Does not take recent Nureyev Revelations into account, Humour, Juno doesn't appear but is somehow still on everyone's mind, New Ridiculous Nureyev Alias, Other, POV Peter Nureyev, Peter Nureyev & Benzaiten Steel Friendship, Post-Episode: s01e18 Juno Steel and the Final Resting Place, Pre Man in Glass, Sarah missed, Warning for Sarah still trying to kill her son, Well - Freeform, just in this one it's fine and he's healthy and happy, no angst whatsoever, otherwise canon compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:15:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24948286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadassIndustries/pseuds/BadassIndustries
Summary: Peter Nureyev had sworn he would never return to Hyperion City. Fortunately, Peter Nureyev was extremely skilled in creative interpretation, so he felt he had kept his promise. For starters, this was not Hyperion City, but Olympus Mons. Furthermore, he was not Peter Nureyev. Never heard of the name, in fact. And lastly, Valentine Wright could not be said to return to Mars since he had never been there before.Nureyev returns to Mars for a con and runs into someone entirely unexpected...
Relationships: Peter Nureyev & Benzaiten Steel, Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel
Series: Peter Nureyev and the Second Steel [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805590
Comments: 39
Kudos: 196





	Peter Nureyev and the Second Steel

Peter Nureyev had sworn he would never return to Hyperion City. Fortunately, Peter Nureyev was extremely skilled in creative interpretation, so he felt he had kept his promise. For starters, this was not Hyperion City, but Olympus Mons. Furthermore, he was not Peter Nureyev. Never heard of the name, in fact. And lastly, Valentine Wright could not be said to return to Mars since he had never been there before. He had never been anywhere before in truth, being an entirely new creation from the tip of his well-coiffed head to the bottom of his sparkly pink shoes.

Valentine Wright's sole purpose was to be invited to this charmingly opulent cotillion, charm the hostess and her debutante daughter out of their wits and walk out with her grandfather's diamond collier in his pocket. Apparently the necklace had a myth attached, that it would ensure a happy match and lasting marriage. Valentine Wright, who was an unashamed romantic, thought this was a lovely story. Of course Mister Wright had never been in love and spent his days longing to meet that certain special someone. When he wasn't busy being his doting father's perfect heir, of course. Mister Wright lived a life of sunshine and roses. No, not roses. Daisies. A beautiful life of sunshine and daisies.

Mister Wright laughed and glittered and moved in circles closer and closer to the hostess, observing her closely while appearing as careless as a butterfly. He had made sure to arrive early at the party. He wouldn't want to miss the debutante's first dance in society after all. An archaic custom, but Mister Wright thinks it's a charming one. He'll appear on the spoiled little debutante’s dance card sooner or later. That's why he, a stranger to the family was invited. Can't have enough harmless young men with unimpeachable reputations at a ball of this kind. Valentine Wright is used to being invited to make up the numbers at dinner parties and he's always happy to dance with the wallflowers. Particularly the rich ones. And if some of their jewellery finds their way into his pockets, well... rich people are so careless with their possessions, aren’t they?

So Mister Wright gasps and applauds when the debutante is presented, in her white gown of real earth silk. He happens to know that that too was her grandfathers’. Made up again to pretend it was new, because the family couldn't afford such extravagance anymore. There wasn’t a lot of money to be made in war profiteering in the past few years after all. And apparently the family didn’t have the inclination or the talent to make their money some other way. So they just sat on their quickly dwindling fortune, pretending they were still in their prime. Mister Wright thought this was sad. Peter Nureyev found it funny. Or he would, if he was here, which he unequivocally was not.

Mister Wright danced around his target, carefully observing while being carefully unobserved. And then he heard something that made him break his stride. A laugh, one among many, that nonetheless stood out. A laugh that lead to a figure that did not look as at home in a tailcoat as it did in a patched up jacket. An elegant figure nonetheless, and one Peter Nureyev had been sure he would never see outside of Hyperion City. For a moment, Nureyev considered disappearing, collecting the necklace later, avoiding whatever would happen when next he encountered Juno Steel. But then he reconsidered. It was not for him to hide in the shadows and avoid confrontation. He had nothing to hide, not anymore. And Valentine Wright was beautiful and happy and had never known a moment’s heartbreak in his life. Mister Wright smiled, checked his shimmering reflection in the overabundance of mirrors in the ballroom and approached his new target.

Now, how to address him for maximum effect? His first name, a surprised laugh that showed his astonishment to see Juno outside of Hyperion City? No, too personal. ‘Detective’ would be better, except Juno may be here undercover and Nureyev did not want to cause trouble he did not intend to cause by blowing Juno’s cover. He could certainly think of no other reason for Juno to be here, at a grand ball, wearing a well fitted tux. Unless he was here with someone else? Nureyev inspected the crowd around Juno, but no one in particular hung off his arm. Good. Nureyev moved closer, making sure to stay behind him so Juno could not catch sight of him. When he reached him, Nureyev briefly debated tapping Juno on the shoulder, but decided against it. The element of surprise would make this much more gratifying. He put an artful laugh in his voice and spoke in delight.

“Mister Steel, what a surprise. It’s been a while, hasn’t it.” Perfect. Pointed, with poise and grace, indicating perfect unconcern.

And then the figure turned and looked at him with two questioning eyes and Nureyev abruptly realised his mistake.

“Oh I’m ever so sorry, how silly of me, I mistook you for someone else,” Mister Wright giggled, barely keeping the champagne in his glass. This stranger was not Juno Steel. He may have looked like him, hunched his shoulders the same way, even tilted his head like Juno, but it was not him.

“No, you’ve got it right, I am Mister Steel.” The stranger said with an expression that was very like Juno and yet not at all like him. Nureyev felt a surge of indignation. Who did this imposter think they were?

“You are not!” Nureyev said, drawing himself up to his full height, “you, sir, are but a pale imitation of Juno Steel. The face is well done, I suppose, but the posture is all wrong, the smile is a mere mockery and the way you move cannot even pretend to be him.” He advanced closer, let a threat simmer through, “And unless you would like to be acquainted with my very sharp knives in very short order, you will tell me who you are and what you are doing here, pretending to be him.”

“Hey, I never said I was _Juno_ Steel,” said the imposter, holding his hands up placatingly but impossibly still smiling. “And I am _a_ Mister Steel. But well done, it generally takes people way longer to figure out. What gave me away? Come on, tell me. Was it the hands?”

Nureyev did not take his hand away from the pocket that housed his sharpest knife.

“So, Juno huh? How’s he doing?” the impostor asked unconcernedly, putting his hands in his pockets and straightening up from Juno’s hunched posture.

“You don’t know?” Nureyev asked dangerously, “How careless of you, to impersonate someone without having a reliable means of surveillance.”

This only won him a puzzled frown.

“Okay, that’s weird,” the stranger said, pulling a face. “You think it’s normal to put surveillance on your own twin? Sheesh, you’re just like Juno!”

Nureyev froze. Twin? Juno didn’t have a twin. Juno would have told him, Juno would have… Juno did tell him. Juno told Rex Glass that he had a brother. A brother who his mother tried to kill. A brother he asked Rex to never ask about again.

“Oh, so you’re his brother!” Valentine asked, letting the harmless cover take over again.

The stranger reacted with a cheery smile. “He told you about me? Wow, Juno must really like you. I’m generally a 20th date conversation. You know, after a thorough background check. Maybe a cavity search.” He winked.

“You are mistaken on that point,” Mister Wright said, careful to keep the frost out of his voice, “I learned of your existence from Cecil Kanagawa. Juno led me to believe you were dead.”

“Haha, yeah, that’s the party line.” Juno’s apparent brother said with a laugh, “don’t look now, but you’re talking to a man that _doesn’t exist_!” He widened his eyes dramatically, the exact same way Nureyev has seen Juno do when he’s being facetious.

“Oh?” asked Valentine, mirroring his enthusiasm, playing at being spellbound, “whatever can you mean!” Privately, he hoped Juno’s brother would not spill his secrets to any eager listener this easily. Even more privately, he hoped that right now, he would continue to do so.

“Exactly that. I’m entirely off the record,” the younger Mister Steel said, a little smugly.

“Bit too much press, after dear old mom... Well, let’s just say my ballet career was over. I lived, and with months of recovery and physical therapy I could dance again, but well. Drop a prima ballerina once and suddenly you’re not getting call-backs anymore. Juno blames himself of course, like a total idiot.”

“Of course he would,” Nureyev said, feeling frustration bubble up from where he had put it far far away.

“Well, yeah, that’s Juno for you. Just cause he’s a few minutes older he thinks he’s got the right to be all protective.”

“Quite. You know, he didn’t even tell me your name.”

“Benzaiten Steel,” Juno’s twin said with a bright cheerfulness Nureyev had never seen on Juno’s face. “sooooo, how long have you known Juno?” Benzaiten rocked on his feet, put his hands in his pockets and looked at Mister Wright expectantly.

While Nureyev was very much unwilling to abandon this unexpected fount of information, he was anxious to move away from this subject as quickly as possible.

“The Detective and I worked a few cases together in the past year. Valentine Wright, charmed to make your acquaintance.”

He made sure to direct a dazzling smile towards Benzaiten, who took it in stride. Regrettably, the same clever intelligence that danced in Juno’s eyes was also housed in Benzaiten’s.

“So, let me guess. You didn’t date Juno, but you’re ready to shank some stranger for pretending to be him —very white knight of you, by the way— so I’m guessing you’re in that awkward will-they-won’t-they stage where he keeps on trying to push you away but he’s so gosh darn endearing you don’t want to leave despite all of it. Am I getting close?”

Nureyev did the only thing he could do and laughed heartily in the face of Benzaiten Steel’s infuriating perspicacity. It would have been an accurate description, were it not for the interventions of one crazed xenobiologist and Juno himself. He prided himself on his control and he would not allow his laugh to ring hollow or his heart to feel pain. Valentine Wright had perhaps had a passing acquaintance with the Detective, a working relationship enlivened by sharing some small personal details and nothing more. Valentine Wright had not met his one and only yet and could therefore never be embarrassed by guesses about his relationship with any random colleague.

“Not at all,” he laughed airily, “I was merely surprised to see you here. The Detective didn’t exactly seem like the kind of person to enjoy these kind of festivities. Did you perhaps inherit a better taste?”

Valentine Wright was interested in people, happy to charm and be charmed and have a good time doing it. He’s perfect for this kind of chitchat, an elegant way to uncover the nuggets of information Nureyev cannot help himself but crave.

“Nah, this type of shindig isn’t my thing either. However, I teach debutantes to dance nowadays and to tell you the truth,” Benzaiten moved closer to Nureyev and lowered his voice to a whisper, “this girl really has three left feet. Yeah, I know, I strongly suspect she’s bought another whole leg, just to trod on my feet even more. They hired me for the first dance, to make her look good. She’s not my most hopeless student, but even Juno was better at following my lead, even at his moodiest.”

Nureyev gave a careless laugh, indicating that this was all very diverting but that he really wasn’t very concerned with any such information. Of course, should Benzaiten wish to divulge more such information, it would only be polite to listen, but really he was far above caring.

“You know,”Benzaiten said slowly, consideringly, “my job here’s done after the first waltz. I was gonna go get a drink someplace after this, you’re welcome to join me.”

Nureyev felt a flinch Valentine Wright did not show. Benzaiten Steel saw it anyway and laughed.

“I’m just saying, I have years’ worth of embarrassing Juno stories saved up, and no one to tell them too. If someone were to buy me a drink I might just slip and tell them about the time Juno tried to arrest our second grade bully…”

It seemed Benzaiten Steel knew very well how to make offers that could not be refused. Valentine Wright inclined his head in respect of this piece of manipulation.

“Give me twenty minutes and I’ll meet you outside,” he said with a smile that was not as bright as the ones Mister Wright generally sported, but contained a good deal more relish. While Benzaiten took his cue on the dance floor and Valentine Wright danced off to get his hands on some diamonds, Peter Nureyev anticipated getting something infinitely more valuable.

**Author's Note:**

> I very much feel the world needed Benzaiten and Nureyev to meet. Mick and Ben have all the good Juno stories and it's criminal that they don't get to share them with Nureyev.
> 
> I may have a sequel of this in the works, where a second Steel turns out to be an essential part of an Aurinko heist, to Juno's despair. Let me know if that's something you'd be interested in!
> 
> Comments bring me joy, so please let me know what you thought! As always, thanks for reading!


End file.
